The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

The only good thing about this is the guys responsible for this mess is who has to deal with it.

https://dolphinswire.usatoday.com/2025/01/06/dolphins-free-agents-2025-jevon-holland-calais-campbell/

The Miami Dolphins loaded up on players with one-year contracts in the 2024 offseason and that means the team has a ton of players set to hit free agency in March.

Without much cap space to work with, the Dolphins may not be able to keep many of those players. Here’s the full list of Miami players with expiring contracts:

QB Tyler Huntley (unrestricted)
RB Jeff Wilson Jr. (unrestricted)
WR Braxton Berrios (unrestricted)
WR River Cracraft (unrestricted)
WR Dee Eskridge (unrestricted)
WR Anthony Schwartz (restricted)
WR Grant DuBose (exclusive rights)
TE Jack Stoll (unrestricted)
OL Isaiah Wynn (unrestricted)
OL Robert Jones (unrestricted)
OL Liam Eichenberg (unrestricted)
OL Kendall Lamm (unrestricted)
OL Jackson Carman (unrestricted)
OL Kion Smith (exclusive rights)
DL Calais Campbell (unrestricted)
DL Benito Jones (unrestricted)
DL Matt Dickerson (unrestricted)
DL Da’Shawn Hand (unrestricted)
OLB Emmanuel Ogbah (unrestricted)
OLB Tyus Bowser (unrestricted)
OLB Quinton Bell (restricted)
OLB Cameron Goode (exclusive rights)
LB Anthony Walker Jr. (unrestricted)
LB Tyrel Dodson (unrestricted)
LB Duke Riley (unrestricted)
LB Cam Brown (unrestricted)
CB Siran Neal (unrestricted)
CB Kader Kohou (restricted)
S Jevón Holland (unrestricted)
S Jordan Poyer (unrestricted)
S Elijah Campbell (unrestricted)
LS Jack McQuaide (unrestricted)

Teams have until March 4 to use the franchise or transition tags to keep players. The only candidate who makes any sense for the Dolphins is Holland, although the price tag — which is projected to be around $20 million for safeties — could scare Miami away.

After that, the legal tampering period will begin March 10 with free agency officially starting on March 12.

i doubt miami keeps Holland, he's not a top tier safety

I think  they are at a point where they can't afford him. He needed to be signed a year ago or maybe even longer. Now we are looking for cheap help. Not sure how that's supposed to work out for us unless we draft starters and that rarely happens.

I don't think we can afford Holland, I don't think we can afford to franchise him either. He's likely to be another 1st-3rd round pick from our rebuild walking out on the team because we're broke.

Kohu will be an interesting one - if he gets enough interest and offers elsewhere, we may not be able to afford to keep him either.  :'(

Of these the only ones that I think would hurt if we lost them. Other than these 6 we could lose them all and not a big deal in my opinion. Even losing a few of these 6 wouldn't be that bad.

WR River Cracraft (unrestricted)
DL Calais Campbell (unrestricted)
OLB Emmanuel Ogbah (unrestricted)
CB Kader Kohou (restricted)
S Jevón Holland (unrestricted)
S Elijah Campbell (unrestricted)

I don't think we'd be super lost without Cracraft.   He's a special teams guy mostly, right?  Whenever I see him catch a pass, I'm almost mad about it, since we have so many other explosive players that could be getting the ball.  He's like...what?  6th option?

i don't think there's a snowballs chance in hell we keep holland

I think we was the Dolphins 3rd or 4th best WR. What 5 WR's would you have over him? Other than Waddle and Hill, maybe Washington. Maybe I'm forgetting someone who was on IR or something?

Not 6th best receiver....6th best option.

Hilll, Waddle, Achane, Jonnu, ...then maybe Washington or Mostert.

I think Cracraft is well behind Washington in the pecking order now, and you could probably throw in Berrios in that boat too (if fit, and he's also unrestricted). With those two guys, they're now primarily depth/special teams players where we can't pay much for them, and if another team is willing to we just have to let them go.

Wynn is one I'd keep on for another year. Yes it was a long time before he hit the field again, but when he did it was clearly a level above the rest of the interior linemen. At worst he will provide great depth and experience for (hopefully) new players coming into the OL.

Luckily this year's draft is deep with defensive backs, especially safeties.

We're going to need every bit of that luck if we also lose Kohu as well in the offseason.

We could well be looking at a complete overhaul of the entire defensive secondary within the next 12-24 months  :( 

Well in that case I think he's still a valuable asset to the team and not just a special teams player. I'm not saying we can't do without him, there's really nobody on that list that we can't do without, but he would be missed. Most of the guys on that list would not be missed if they left in free agency.

I think you're undervalueing depth/special teams especially with the injury history of the Dolphins and the NFL in general.

Early Forecast for 2025 Dolphins UFAs
The Miami Dolphins have 27 players scheduled to become UFAs in March, but they likely will be bringing back several of them

https://www.si.com/nfl/dolphins/news/early-forecast-for-2025-dolphins-ufas-01jhjz5vy1pj

Dolphins are going to have a hard time outbidding any team who wants one of them

^^^ On paper now I would agree for now but I also know they use voodoo to rework these high numbers to give themselves plenty of room to work. It just really depends on what they want to do.

Voodoo, witchcraft and virgin sacrifices aren't going to help us - we are royally screwed by Grier's cap mismanagement.

Continually making today's problem tomorrow's, is making tomorrow's problem an even bigger one - we've already done that a couple of years, and we're at the edge of the cliff right now.

Dolphins Now Know Cost of Tendering Kohou and Tagging Holland

https://www.si.com/nfl/dolphins/news/dolphins-now-know-cost-of-tendering-kohou-and-tagging-holland-01jn6y6zzx8y

For those of you at home playing The Price is Right, the RFA tenders and franchise/transition tags are now official.

We all know it ain't gonna happen, but for the cost of keeping Holland around, the non-exclusive franchise tag would have been $18.6M, and the transition tag would have been $15M.

Kohu's second-round tender would cost $5.3M, or if they went for the right of first refusal but no compensation, it would be $3.3M.

https://www.si.com/nfl/dolphins/news/dolphins-make-move-toward-keeping-kohou-01jnvs65c0z3

The Dolphins have elected to go with the right of first refusal tender for Kohou at $3.3M.

They can elect to match any offer that Kohou gets from another team, but will get no draft pick compensation if they decline to match.

Robert Jones and Braxton Berrios are both packing for the lone star state after signing with Dallas and Houston respectively.

Sorry to see Jones go, he would have provided nice depth on the line.  As for Berrios it's not much of a loss, WR's at his level are a dime a dozen, he's like #5 on the depth chart.

The one guy I think almost everyone would be happy to see the last of, has re-signed for another year.

https://www.si.com/nfl/dolphins/news/eichenberg-back-for-another-go-around-01jp8vvqswdq

Hopefully we're paying Eichenberg practice squad level money, because that's really where he should rank in terms of effectiveness.

Da'Shawn Hand has left to go the the Chargers, which is leaving our IDL depth awfully thin.

https://www.si.com/nfl/dolphins/news/dolphins-lose-helping-hand-on-d-line-01jp8e51ab3b

LB Anthony Walker Jr has left for Tampa Bay, which has been basically offset by signing J.J Britt from Tampay Bay.

WR Dee Eskridge, OL Jackson Carman, OLB Quinton Bell, LB Tyrel Dodson, S Elijah Campbell have all re-signed with the Dolphins.

Benito Jones has re-signed again.
https://www.si.com/nfl/dolphins/news/dolphins-bring-back-defensive-starter-01jpt359knn4

Jones continues to get better so this is a good signing. He was an undrafted free agent we signed a few years ago. I saw a stat yesterday that said the Dolphins under Grier have retained less than 30% of their draft picks (he's not that) which is towards the bottom of the league. I think Omar had posted it or someone like that. Regardless, that isn't great for our long term outlook.

Cracraft has now signed with the Seahawks.

https://www.si.com/nfl/dolphins/cracraft-signs-with-seahawks-01jpx965ydg9

Kendall Lamm has decided not to retire... but to play with the Eagles instead next season.

https://www.si.com/nfl/dolphins/news/dolphins-tackle-joining-super-bowl-champions-01jq51qtpftz

Likewise, Calais Campbell has also decided not to retire... but to carry on with another team, the Cardinals, for a pretty decent pay rise.

https://www.si.com/nfl/dolphins/news/dolphins-not-getting-a-second-campbell-season-01jqsm6sq6gw

Would have liked Campbell to stick around for another year, but Arizona is going to pay him $7 million, whereas Miami only had to pay him $2 million last year.  He's not worth $7 million, but good for him in getting paid one more time.

His play last year was certainly worth $7M, and it would be one thing if he was headed to Baltimore to play for that kind of money.  But his choice to sign with Arizona pretty clearly indicates that this wasn't about money or chance for a ring.  He wanted to retire where he started.

Apparently he really liked living out there and plans to retire there. Joe Rose and Omar said this morning that the Dolphins had offered similar money and it was about where he wanted to be.

One side effect of Campbell leaving is that we now have a net loss of compensatory free agents, meaning we're in line for a future fourth-round compensatory pick for Holland.

https://www.si.com/nfl/dolphins/news/campbell-thoughts-on-contract-compensatory-pick-01jqv948ne61

You have to wonder if the delay with Campbell making his decision has then delayed any possible decision to re-sign Ogbah? (or possibly even Wynn)

If Campbell did play with us next year, we'd possibly be hoping for someone else out to walk out the door to keep that additional future pick.

The attached article has a good breakdown of what FA's we signed from other teams, What FA's Miami resigned from their team, what FA's of Miami are still unsigned, and what FA's have left Miami for other teams, ass of 4/2/25.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/ranking-the-remaining-dolphins-free-agents-after-campbell-s-departure/ar-AA1CaKvJ?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=a0a28982f88347a68a6cef9bec9ccf9e&ei=17

Armstead has now retired.

https://www.si.com/nfl/dolphins/news/armstead-decides-on-retirement-01jr0f41h2t7

Kohou has now officially signed his tender, and will be back for the 2025 season (and become an unrestricted free agent after that):

https://www.si.com/nfl/dolphins/news/kohou-s-return-now-official-01jrkgv33na4